Chronicles of the First Cylon War
by The Wilky Bar Kid
Summary: A series of one-shot stories written by myself and Wes Imlay covering events that take place during the First Cylon War.
1. Introduction

**INTRODUCTION**

The following is a series of stories that have been written by either myself or Wes Imlay. They are a collection of one-shot stories set during the First Cylon War and cover various different subjects from angst to action to love and tragedy.

Below is a Contents section and a Timeline section. Both of these will be updated everytime a new story (chapter) is added.

We hope you enjoy the stories.

- _Anthony Wilkins_

_"The Wilky Bar Kid"_

* * *

**CONTENTS**

**Escaping Hades **_by Wes Imlay_

The lives of several different groups of people are about to change dramatically as news of an uprising by the Cylons reaches them and they have only one course of action left open to them; escape from the city of Hades on Canceron before it falls to the mechanical army.

**Prisoner of War** _by Anthony Wilkins_

A Cylon Centurion is captured intact just days before a major operation is about to be undertaken. Instead of trying to hack the Centurion's software for information the Colonial Fleet bring it aboard the Battlestar Galactica to be interrogated. What secrets will it reveal?

**Life Tests** _by Anthony Wilkins_

A wounded Colonial stumbles across a young woman who has been booby trapped but as he attempts to free her he finds himself being observed by a curious Cylon.

* * *

**TIMELINE**

Key; **BTF** – years Before The Fall  
Source; Battlestar Wiki

58—52 BTF

With the use of a meta-cognitive processor stolen from Tauron rival Tomas Vergis, the Caprican tech CEO Daniel Graystone creates the first Cylons of the Twelve Colonies to aid in hard labor and warfare. A virtual copy of his dead monotheist daughter Zoe Graystone's consciousness is downloaded into one. Humanity is unaware that they are repeating the actions of their ancestors on Kobol.

52 BTF

The Cylons revolt and the First Cylon War erupts across the Twelve Colonies

**Chapter 1 – Escaping Hades** _by Wes Imlay_

**Chapter 3 – Life Tests **_by Anthony Wilkins_

50 BTF

The Battlestar Galactica is commissioned into the Colonial Fleet.

40 BTF

Mechanical Cylons begin experiments constructing humanoid forms of Cylon. They succeed in creating the First Hybrid and subsequent Hybrids, but no fully humanoid forms.

**Chapter 2 – Prisoner of War** _by Anthony Wilkins_

The Final Five arrive in the Colonial solar system in the waning days of the war.

Operation Raptor Talon conducted by the Colonial Fleet. Battlestar Columbia destroyed.

The Five meet the local Cylons and negotiate an end to the war. They will give the Cylons biological bodies complete with resurrection technology if the Cylons agree to end the war.

Armistice ends the Cylon War. Cylons exile themselves from the Twelve Colonies. The First Hybrid and his Guardians part company with the other Cylons.


	2. Escaping Hades

**Escaping Hades  
**_**by Wes Imlay**_

**Fifty-Two Years before the fall:  
Hades, Canceron:  
Government District:**

"How much longer do we have until the General Assembly meets?" Ian Donnelly asked his assistant as he walked down Lyndhurst Boulevard on their way to the Hades Assembly Hall.

"We have an hour and twelve minutes until the entire Assembly meets, that should give us time to get past the various security checkpoints," Allison Harrower said as she checked her handheld organizer. Harrower had worked with Ian for five years now as his personal assistant. She was meticulous in her job and the handheld organizer seldom left her hand. For many who saw her it was always a surprise if she were ever without it.

"That's plenty of time then, but why in the name of the Gods did Governor Bishop call a joint session of both houses?" Donnelly asked. The governing body of the Sovereign Colony of Canceron, the General Assembly, was made up of two houses. The lower house was called the Curia while the upper house was known as the Senate.

"There are times when I don't think Nancy Bishop really has much of an idea what she's doing," Harrower said.

"That could be because you belong to the opposing party," Curia member Helen Chalmers said as she caught up to Donnelly and Harrower.

"Here I am walking to the Assembly with the enemy," Donnelly teased Chalmers knowing it would only get a laugh from the woman. Harrower eyed the arrival with suspicion as she always did when she was around Donnelly.

"This is an address to both members of the General Assembly, doesn't matter whether we belong to the Progressive Party or the National Union Party," Chalmers retorted with a grin. Like Governor Bishop, she was a member of the Progressive Party.

"For what it's worth I think we'd rather just be leery of the opposition," Harrower responded with a look that dared Chalmers to start an argument on the issue.

"Right, well I will leave the two of you to stew in your hostilities while our governor graces us with her presence," Chalmers said as she walked away from them to a group of lawmakers she recognized.

"The people of Mangala must really be stupid to elect her," Harrower said.

"She's not so bad once you get to know her," Donnelly said diplomatically.

"There's a difference between us, I work for you and with that comes my loyalty to the National Unity Party. I could care less about getting to know the opposition; my concern is making sure you stay elected."

"That's what I like about you Allison, you do both me and the people of Iopolis a great service," Donnelly said as he gave his assistant a fatherly pat on the back.

"Someone has to work behind the scenes, might as well be me," she said as they rounded a corner and made their way to the entrance for the members of the General Assembly.

* * *

**Hades, Canceron:  
Town of Waverly Hall:**

The town of Waverly Hall was a suburb of Hades with a population of only 847. In the early morning hour, Cora Gilroy was getting her eight-year old son John ready for school.

"Hurry up John, we're going to be late," she called from the kitchen as she grabbed her car keys for the morning commute. Her husband Jacob had already left that morning for his job at the Winder Iron Works in Hades and as she stood at the bottom of the stairs she uttered to herself, "Just one morning I would like to leave on time. Just once! Is that too much? Come on, John!"

"I'm almost done mom!" John Gilroy called out from his upstairs bedroom.

"Great, now get down here so we can leave!" Cora knew that traffic on the Commonwealth Expressway was going to be picking up considerably as people made their way into Hades and away from the capital to the smaller cities in the area.

"Ready to go Mom!" John yelled as he bounded the stairs full of youthful energy, he was indeed a very active eight-year old boy.

"We're burning daylight, let's get out of here," Cora said as she grabbed her purse, keys, and mobile phone. If she was lucky they would not run into the morning rush hour traffic that the Commonwealth Expressway was notorious for.

* * *

**Hades, Canceron:  
Forty-First Precinct Police Station:**

"Alright Crawford, what neighborhood are we being sent to today?" Officer Elizabeth Brookes asked.

"Today we are being sent to patrol East Mayfield, so it should be a fun-filled day for us," Officer David Crawford said as he downed the rest of his black coffee and adjusted his uniform. He was the senior officer assigned to help the rookie officer adjust to life at the Forty-First. Brookes was a young twenty-two while Crawford was thirty-five and had seen most of what could happen in a city such as Hades.

"Why East Mayfield, they couldn't have assigned us a nicer area like Oakhurst?" Brookes asked.

"Because tensions in East Mayfield have been high since the Warenreich Incident last week," Crawford explained.

"I know that, the news won't let us forget about the damn thing," Brookes said with disgust at the non-stop news cycle that seemed to only serve to fan the flames of the already high tensions in the area.

East Mayfield was a melting pot where you have Cancerons, Gemonese, Sagittarrons, and other people from the Colonies who lived together but really did not get along. Mayfield used to be a separate city until the eastern half was annexed by Hades; West Mayfield was still its own city though it had become another suburb of Canceron's capital. East Mayfield was now home to the different groups who had either immigrated to Canceron or were here on other types of business. Last week a Gemenese girl named Sara Warenreich claimed a group of Cancerons tried to assault her and tensions had been high between the ethnic minority and the indigenous people there ever since. The Hades Police Department had ordered extra officers to patrol the city to make sure no rioting occurred and none of the side effects of rioting would take place.

The two officers started down the hallway that would take them to the elevator they would need to use to get to the squad car parking garage.

"How'd it go last night?" Crawford asked.

"How did what go last night?" Brookes said as she tried to act like she had no idea what he was talking about.

"You're going to act like you weren't on that date last night?" Crawford asked.

"It went fine, we had a nice dinner at Loreto's followed by a walk around Lake Bryn before we called it a night," Brookes said as the two maneuvered through a crowd of their fellow officers.

"Glad to hear it, so you are you and what's-his-name going to have another date?" Crawford asked.

"His name is David Conner, and there may be a second date. Why are you so curious?" Brookes asked.

"We've been partners here for the past three years; it's just nice to see you finally have something akin to a love life. Everybody needs someone Liz," Crawford said as he held up his left hand to emphasize his wedding ring.

"I know that, not everyone here can have a nice marriage like you and Jane have. It's only been one date, we'll see how it goes," Brookes said in hopes that it would end the conversation.

They made it to the elevator and Crawford pressed the button to summon the vertical means of transportation.

"You know we could always just use the stairs," Brookes said.

"Modern conveniences, much like the Cylons, are here to make our lives easier so we should do all we can to take advantage of them."

* * *

**Hades, Canceron:  
Fort Neyland:**

"Do you have anything new to report Lieutenant?" Commander Lambert Wickes asked the officer standing in front of his desk.

"Yes sir, my squadron has completed their training for the festivities tomorrow," Lieutenant Isaiah Robinson responded. He commanded Squadron Three consisting of twelve Foxtrot-class Vipers stationed at Fort Neyland, and they had been selected to represent the fort at the Hades Day celebration that would take place the next day to commemorate the founding of the capital city of Canceron.

"That's reassuring," Wickes said as he began to steeple his fingers, "I would like for you and your pilots to practice the Wildcat Formation for the upcoming festivities. Do you think your pilots can handle that?"

Robinson knew that he would have to work hard on that particular formation. He really had no choice but to say that they could, it would be unwise for him as a squadron leader to disparage his pilots. At least that was how he felt on the issue.

"We can make it happen sir, my pilots won't let you down," he said throwing on his best card face.

Wickes smiled, "That's what I was hoping to hear, go get your squadron ready for tomorrow. You're dismissed."

Robinson left the room and realized his pilots were not going to be very happy with the news that the day of rest he had promised them was going to have to be cancelled because the base commander wanted to see a decidedly more dangerous flying maneuver than the safer Sunburst that they had been practicing.

* * *

**General Assembly:**

"This Assembly of the Sovereign Colony of Canceron is now in session," Lieutenant Governor Seth Harding announced, "All rise for the Governor of the Colony, the right honorable Nancy Bishop."

The delegation stood as a door to the right of the back wall of the Assembly opened and in walked Governor Nancy Bishop. She was in her mid-fifties and some said that her election to the governorship of the colony was the result of the ineffective leadership of the previous governor, John H. Dent.

For security purposes she was always flanked by no less than six Cylon Centurion escorts, it had been deemed more cost-effective to have these mechanical guardians in place as opposed to using humans for personal protection. Each one had been specially decorated for their role with their bodies painted Royal Blue and the emblem of the Colony on their arms just below the shoulder. Many viewed these mechanical escorts as the government portraying the wrong sort of image to the people.

* * *

**Commonwealth Expressway:**

Her worst fears were confirmed, traffic on the Commonwealth Expressway was at a standstill due to the large amount of traffic stopped due to a ten car pileup resulting from a semi truck that had taken a turn too sharply and rolled over. All Cora Gilroy could do was look out at the sea of traffic and wonder just how late John would be for school. Her son seemed oblivious to it all, contentedly sitting in the passenger seat reading a book called 'A Window to the Past' and humming along to the music that was playing on the radio.

She knew from previous traffic accidents that the Department of Transportation's Cylon cleanup crews were working on clearing the expressway of the wrecked vehicles, it was just a matter of waiting for it to happen.

Cora decided that the song playing was just going to irritate her further so she switched the station to one of the various all-news stations.

"In other news this morning, reports have been coming in from the Northern Territories about Cylon malfunctions," the voice of the news reporter said as she was going down the list of the morning briefs.

"It's a good thing those machines don't mind the extreme cold," Cora said though John was too busy reading his book to realize his mom had spoken.

The Northern Territories was a large frozen mass of land that had been incorporated as its own political entity when the colony came under a single government. There were only four cities up there that could even be considered slightly 'habitable' for humans; Milner, Pavo, Embree, and Clarendon. Out of these four cities it was Pavo that served as the official capital of the Northern Territories.

"The cause of the malfunctions is yet to be made clear and no official word has been made by either government officials or the manufacturer, but from the reports we have received it would appear the Cylons are not responding to the orders given to them. As a result industrial production has been temporarily suspended until the problem can be found and sorted out."

Cora just shook her head, it sounded like whatever was going on in the Northern Territories was an inconvenience that could get worse if something was not done about it.

* * *

**General Assembly:**

Bishop stood at the podium where the Speaker of the Curia would normally stand to direct the official business of the governing body. She looked to the left side of the Assembly and then to the right, finally after what seemed like an eternity lost in thought she directed her gaze to those seated in the center portion of the large chamber.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the General Assembly, as your governor it is both an honor and a privilege to address you here today," Bishop said as she began the speech she had prepared since she had received the news earlier this morning from her Defense Minister.

This was something she knew had been building and as much as she hated to do it, she knew what she was about to tell these lawmakers could have disastrous implications.

"As many of you know, we have had a series of trade disagreements with the Colony of Tauron. We have attempted to use diplomacy to solve these problems, and in truth it seemed as though we were making headway. That is until early this morning when the Tauron military seized control of the Gholson Steel Foundry located in Tauron City. The government of Tauron then arrested brothers Benjamin and Samuel Gholson, two men who came to Tauron in the spirit of friendship to use their entrepreneurial gifts to benefit not only their fellow citizens of Canceron but also those of the Taurons," Bishop said as she waited for her words to take effect.

"I have spoken with Governor Jack Maginnis of Tauron and he informed me that the Gholson brothers were running a forced labor camp that enslaved the people he was elected to represent. I asked for elaboration on his words but above all proof and received neither. It was still hoped that we could still use diplomacy to solve the problem until I received reports this morning that the Gholson brothers were being brought before a military tribunal in the next couple of days to stand trial on the charges that Governor Maginnis felt compelled to pursue against them. As the leader of the Soverign Colony of Canceron I cannot let this stand, which is why I am asking you today to approve a military blockade of Tauron until they are willing to listen to reason and sit down with our diplomats to negotiate. With this blockade, most if not all of our fleet will be needed for this endeavor. In order to keep the other colonies from taking advantage of this, I am asking you to also approve funding to enlarge our military. We need more cruisers built in order to keep the Sovereign Colony of Canceron safe from those who wish it harm," Bishop was looking at the faces of the people hoping to gauge what was being said. She knew that this was tricky, especially with the Hades Day celebration coming up tomorrow, but time was of the essence and the military of Canceron needed to be readied for a possible military conflict with Tauron.

There were divided murmurs from the assembled politicians as they heard the speech. Ian Donnelly sat in his seat mesmerized by what he was hearing, he had always pegged Nancy Bishop as being a pacifist on practically every issue that involved a conflict but yet here she was calling for an arms buildup to dissuade Tauron from taking a course of action that could lead to further escalation.

He felt a tapping on his shoulder and looked to see that Allison Harrower had come up to where he was seating.

"What is it?" he whispered to her.

"Important call for you, you had better come with me to answer it," Harrower said as she motioned for Donnelly to follow her.

He discreetly made his way up the aisle and out of the Assembly Chamber. When he was out of earshot of the Governor's speech he looked at his assistant, "Alright Allison, what the hell is so important for you to drag me out of this speech?"

"There's a call that came in for you from Iopolis, something about the Cylons," Harrower said as she handed him her mobile phone.

"This better be good," Donnelly whispered harshly before he took the phone from her, "This is Donnelly," he said and wondered what he was going to hear.

"Ian, it's Monty," the voice belonged to Montgomery 'Monty' Sicard.

"Monty, what can I do for you?" Donnelly asked his friend from Iopolis, Donnelly having known 'Monty' since their high school days at Townsend Academy in Iopolis.

"I told Allison this and now I'm telling you, it seems the trouble we've had with the Cylons in the Northern Territories has spread here as well. The Cylons are not responding to any commands given to them, they seem to be walking around in some way that only they appear to understand."

"Listen Monty, I'll get with the Minister of Technology and see what can be sorted out, the Governor is giving an important speech and I really need to be there to listen to it," Donnelly said as he clicked the phone off and handed it back to Harrower without saying a word.

He walked to the door he had just come out of was preparing to walk in, but in that instant he saw something that horrified him. The six Cylons that had been assigned to guard Governor Bishop took their sidearms out of their holsters and in one quick motion put several bullets into her body. One of them went right through her head and she hit the floor in a pool of blood and tissue.

There was a loud burst of screaming from the assembly members as the Cylons began to turn their weapons to the leaders of the Senate and Curia, as well as the Lieutenant Governor and dispatched them quickly before anyone had time to react.

Donnelly ran from the door and grabbed Harrower by the elbow, "We have to get out of here now!"

"Were those gunshots I heard?" she asked.

"Yes, the Cylons just gunned down the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the leaders of the Curia and Senate," Donnelly said as he ran with Harrower towards the fire exit. He heard the sound of heavy metallic footsteps and knew the Cylons were beginning to mass near the doors they had just left from. The staccato of automatic fire and the screams of those shot began to resound off the walls of the Assembly Chamber. The Cylons were assassinating the combined government of Canceron.

* * *

**Commonwealth Expressway:**

Cora Gilroy heard the explosion coming from up ahead in traffic, and then she saw the flames shooting up as several cars leaped up into the air on fire. She heard a whoosh as she realized that rockets were being fired into the cars jammed onto the Commonwealth Expressway. Her maternal instinct kicked in, and seemed to be directing her body because her mind was not yet comprehending what was taking place.

"Undo your seatbelt, we have to get out here!" she screamed as she undid her seat belt and bolted to the other side of the car to let John out.

"Mom, what's going on?" John asked the fear in his voice palpable.

"I don't know honey, but we're getting far away from here," she said as she took him by the hand and led him to the nearby barrier that separated a housing community from the Expressway.

"Where are we going?" John asked, still sounding like a frightened boy. "What about the car, mommy? Mommy?"

"We're going to climb the fence and go someplace safe," Cora said as they reached the fence.

"But what about the car?" pleaded the little boy who didn't understand the danger.

Another loud explosion filled the air ahead of them. More cars were being ripped apart by rocket and heavy gunfire and the sounds of people screaming followed the explosive thunder.

"Oh frak! Come on John! Quickly"

She helped to lift her son high enough to climb over and then she did a running jump and climbed over as well. She looked into the distance and saw that the cars, including hers, were now on fire as whatever was being fired at them had set them ablaze. People were running between the cars screaming in terror some of which were covered in blood; some of their own and some belonged to other commuters.

"Come on honey, let's go get help," she said as calmly as could as she led her son away from the carnage as quickly as his young legs would allow. In the distance she heard the screams of the dying and realized that it could have easily been both of them. Several times John tried to look back to see what was going on but wanting to shield her son from the horror Cora quickly tugged on his arm and told him to keep looking forwards. The uneven ground made the escape difficult but Cora was determined to get away as her maternal instincts took priority over her own life.

She had to save her son.

* * *

**Fort Neyland:**

"All pilots report to your ready rooms. I repeat all pilots report to your ready rooms. This is not a drill, not a drill!" the voice of the communications officer blared over the loudspeaker all over Fort Neyland.

"What the frak is going on?" Lt. Clark Gorseinon asked Lieutenant Isaiah Robinson, the officer in charge of the Viper squadron he was assigned to. "Is it the Taurons? Have they killed those brothers?"

"I'll fill you and the rest of the squad in on what's going on," Robinson said as the two men bounded into the ready room for Squadron Three.

"Good morning, today we were supposed to be engaged in more practice for the Hades Day celebrations tomorrow. However that will no longer be the case," Robinson began as he looked and saw that his right hand was shaking slightly. It was something he had not been aware of and he tried to steady his hand before he began, "The Cylons have...revolted for lack of better words. Half an hour ago they assassinated Governor Nancy Bishop and as best we can tell all members of the General Assembly."

There was a stream of comments and questions from the twelve pilots there in the room. Robinson realized that the situation was going to get out of hand, "Shut up and listen!"

The room went silent at this rare outburst of anger from their squadron leader. Robinson took advantage of it to continue with the important items from the briefing he had been given, "The Cylons have also killed the Prefects of the administrative regions. The colony is on the verge of descending into anarchy. The few surviving government offcials who are left have declared a state of emergency and have already begun putting in place measures that are in-effect, Martial Law."

"What are we supposed to do?" Ensign Dale Edmonds asked.

"Pray to the Gods they run of oil," Ensign Anna Gach said which drew some nervous laughter.

"We're going to fly out there and cover the troops who are engaging the Cylons as we speak. Worst case scenario is that we head north to Iopolis to Fort Teuton and from there fly to McDermott Air Base in Pavo," Robinson said and took note of the looks of surprise on his pilots' faces.

"The Northern Territories?" Lieutenant Lucy Marston half-stated and half-asked.

"McDermott is well-defended and it should give us a safe haven for the time being until we can regroup and get some form of leadership, civilian or military," Robinson said and looked around at the pilots sitting there almost numb from the news that had been passed along to them.

"The Cylons are revolting, what are we going to do?" Ensign Emma Steele asked, probably voicing what the squadron was thinking.

"We're going to do our jobs," Robinson said in his best command voice, "We're going to fly out there and provide cover for the troops or whatever job we are asked to do and we're going to do it well because we are Squadron Three of Fort Neyland!"

The pilots got up and began to get suited up for the task that lay ahead for them, Robinson looked around and murmured a silent prayer that they would come out of this unscathed and be able to save the lives of at least a few of the civilians they were sworn to protect.

* * *

**McCarron Street:**

"Dave look out!" Elizabeth Brookes screamed as the couple darted out in front of them.

Crawford hit the brakes and sent their patrol car to a sudden halt, the cars behind them swerving and barely managing to avoid a collision. He got out of the car and saw that the couple they had hit was a forty-something looking man and a woman who looked to be in her late twenties.

"What the frak were the two of you thinking?" Crawford yelled at the couple who looked to be too shell-shocked to say anything.

"Dave, I think there's something wrong with them," Brookes said as she got out of the car and walked towards them.

""The Cylons…" the woman said.

Crawford approached the hysterical couple holding has arms out reassuringly, trying to calm them down. "Ma'am what's your name?" he asked.

"They killed everyone," she said just looking ahead blankly.

"If you could tell me your name, we can get you help," Crawford said as he inched closer. He looked behind him and saw that Brookes had turned the lights on the roof of their patrol car on.

"Allison Harrower, she's my personal assistant," the man said as he seemed to come out of the shock that had kept him quiet all this time.

"Thank you sir, and your name is?" Crawford asked as Brookes got back into the car to type Harrower's name into the car's small computer.

"Ian Donnelly, I'm a member of the Curia. I'm the representative if Iopolis, we were at the General Assembly when the Cylons opened fire and killed everyone there."

"Alright Mr. Donnelly, how were you and Miss Harrower able to escape?" Crawford asked as professionally as he could while unsure if he believed them or not. One thing he had learned on the job was that junkies come in all shapes and sizes and saw all kinds of things in their hallucinatory state.

"I had received a phone and call and stepped out. When we heard the shooting we bolted for a nearby fire exit and managed to get out in time," Donnelly said as he seemed to get more a hold of himself and act more like an elected representative.

Listening to their story, Crawford had remembered a report that the two of them had received from an automated emergency broadcasting system. If this was true, then they had found at least one person from the General Assembly who had survived, "Brookes turn the siren on, we have to get moving," he called out to his partner before turning his attention to Donnelly and Harrower, "We need to get the two of you to a secure location. Get in our car and we'll take you to Fort Neyland."

* * *

**A-1452****  
Road adjoining the townships of Marrion and Causea  
85 miles east of Fort Neyland**

It was a frightening sight to behold. The burned out wrecks of the cars. The carcasses of what were once people, the heavy weapons fire having made little work of tearing through their delicate Human flesh. And through it all the distinctive humming sound of an artificial lifeform. The Cylon platoon marched through wreckage scanning the bodies for any sign of life. Any that was discovered were quickly subdued. The Cylons didn't have any room in their programming for dealing with survivors. Eight of the twenty or so Cylons were painted bright yellow with black stripes. These had been highway maintenance Cylons used for clearing away car accidents and working on the roads. Now they bore arms like their Centurion brethren and marched towards their goal of victory over their human oppressors.

There was a sudden high pitched shriek followed quickly by another. The Cylons looked skywards as two Foxtrot-class Vipers darted out of the sun. With white hot vortices streaming from their sweeping wings as they cut through the air they drew long lines in the sky as they swooped down. Suddenly the air came alive as gunfire streamed from the fighters cutting down the lead Cylons and causing the others to scatter as they opened up on the two Vipers that were now turning their noses high to avoid getting too low to the ground where they would be vulnerable to small arms fire.

Staying high the Vipers came around again for a second pass. By now the Cylons had organised and were dispersed so that no one strafing pass could take out more than a single Centurion. Each Viper picked their target and fired a short burst taking out another pair of Cylons but as they pulled upwards once more a long white stream of smoke darted upwards and began pursuing one of the Vipers.

Lt. Mira Zeyer saw the white smoke trail arching around towards her Viper.

"Frak!" she screamed as she threw her fighter into a hard 7G turn to the right. The SAM appeared as little more than a dot as its second stage slow burner motor kicked in making it all the more difficult to see. Knowing that she now had to pile on the speed on she turned her nose downwards trading altitude for speed. Down she went all the while trying to find the small missile with her human eyes. Suddenly her Viper began to rattle as small arms fire from the Cylons strick her Viper. Surpised, she jinked from left to right without actually changing the direction of the Viper which meant it was effectively flying in a straight line. It was easy prey for the missile which exploded on her rear fuselage. She didn't even have chance to scream.

* * *

**Rodgers Avenue:**

Cora and John Gilroy had managed to stay ahead of the crowd from the Commonwealth Expressway and had made it to Rodgers Avenue. The streets were jammed with soldiers, police, and emergency response vehicles. Cora held her son's hand tightly as they tried to maneuver through the sea of humanity that lay before them.

"Excuse me!" she constantly said as she pushed through the crowd. "Excuse me please!" She had no idea where she was going, her mind was focused on getting her son to safety and as far as she was concerned it was as far away from the Cylons as possible.

"Civilians heading to Fort Neyland please line up here," a uniformed soldier in full combat gear announced as a group of soldiers formed a perimeter around the tailgate of a recently offloaded troop transport.

'Why not, it's got to be safer than the streets,' Cora thought as she turned and half pulled John to where the soldiers were at.

"You two get in there," the solider said as he pointed at them.

"Thank you," Cora said which got a slight nod from the soldier; they took the seats furthest away from the exit and waited as more people got onboard the transport. When it had been filled to capacity the tailgate was raised and the engine of the transport rumbled to life as they left Rodgers Avenue on their way to Fort Neyland.

**

* * *

Fort Neyland:  
Two Hours Later:**

Commander Lambert Wickes was having a bad day, actually that would have been an understatement. His subordinates had left the conference room adjacent to his office, now he stood there alone with his thoughts and the many reports that had come in that morning since the Cylons had made their move against their human masters. The last report had confirmed what he had suspected the loud booms and thuds were; the Cylons were advancing on Fort Neyland. His command was not far from being under siege.

The door swung open and in came six people, two police officers, two of the base security officers, and two people in civilian suits.

"You'd best have a reason for barging in here like this," Wilkes asked the two security officers who nodded and stepped aside for one of the civilians.

"Ian Donnelly, I'm a member of the Curia."

"Commander Lambert Wilkes," he said as he offered a handshake to the man, "I hate to tell you this, but you're the only member of the civilian government who's confirmed as having survived."

"That's what I was afraid of; thanks to these officers here Miss Harrower and I were able to get here safely."

Wilkes shook his head, "I wish I could tell you that you're safe but the Cylons are advancing on us. First things first, we need to get our chaplain here with a copy of the Sacred Scrolls."

Donnelly nodded his head solemnly, "Yes, I had a feeling that was going to need to happen."

Wilkes nodded, "We need someone to lead the people, and you are a legally recognized member of the civilian government. The people would respond better to you instead of a member of the military taking command."

A few minutes later the chaplain came in with his copy of the Sacred Scrolls, "Mr. Donnelly if you'd please place your hand on the Scrolls." Donnelly did so and repeated each of the Chaplin's words although he couldn't believe it was happening. "I Ian Charles Donnelly, son of Joseph Donnelly, do hear now solemnly swear that I shall assume the post of Governor of the Sovereign Colony of Canceron. That I will serve the people and the will of the people with morality and honor. That I will uphold the Constitution of Canceron and defend the freedoms our people enjoy with every fiber of my being for as long as I am required to serve."

He was now Governor Ian Donnelly of Canceron.

"May I be the first to congratulate you Mr. Governor," Wilkes said as he came to attention and saluted the man who was now his Commander-in-Chief.

"Commander Wilkes, we need to evacuate this base and relocate to a more secure facility," Donnelly said, still finding it hard to believe that he was now in charge of Canceron.

"Aye aye sir, I'll get the troop transport out on the tarmac and begin loading personnel. Where's our destination?" Wilkes asked.

"We're heading up to Pavo, that's where the Governor's emergency bunker is located at. It's a place known only to the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the General Assembly. When we get to McDermott Air Base I can direct you there, that is if the Cylons haven't taken the city and base yet," Donnelly felt just a bit helpless but could do little about it, he had to look and act the part of a Governor and in this case he had to take a risk.

"Squadron Three just returned from a strafing run on the Cylons, I'll have them refuel and prepare to escort us up to Pavo. Give us half an hour to forty-five minutes and we'll be ready to leave," Wilkes said.

"Commander Wilkes," Donnelly called out.

"Yes Mr. Governor, what is it?" Wilkes asked.

"When we get to Pavo I'm appointing you Lt. Governor, no staying behind and taking one for the team, understood?" Donnelly knew the military types and some of them were willing to sacrifice themselves if they felt the need to. Right now he needed a strong leader to serve as Lieutenant Governor, and he liked what he saw in Lambert Wilkes.

* * *

**Army Transport Plane DD-680:**

The large transport plane had been loaded with both people and supplies to the point where it seemed that was no more room left to even fit a small box onboard.

Captain Warner Ryerson and his co-pilot, Lieutenant Xiang Nuan, went through their pre-flight checks to make sure that everything was in working order before they took off. This was going to be perhaps their most nerve-wracking of flights. Not only were they carrying refugees from Hades, the city itself was falling to the Cylons as troops and police officers were overwhelmed, they were carrying with them Governor Ian Donnelly and the soon-to-be Lieutenant Governor Lambert Wilkes.

"Transport DD-680 you are cleared for takeoff, good luck out there," the air traffic controller said.

"Correction on that, this is Canceron Alpha," Ryerson corrected which drew a satisfied smile from Nuan as she put away her clipboard and readied herself for flight.

"Canceron Alpha, this is Lt. Isaiah "Thumper" Robinson, my pilots and I will be your escorts all the way to Pavo," Robinson said as he and his pilots readied themselves to take off along with the plane carrying the civilian government of Canceron and some of the refugees who had managed to escape Hades. He thought of the eight Vipers left in his squadron, and felt a pang of guilt for the four they had lost over Hades. Lieutenants Mira Zeya and Dmitri Kaman along with Ensigns Murray Jones and Jesse Clyborn had been shot down during their engagements and could either be dead or trapped behind what could now be considered enemy lines.

The large transport plane and its eight escorts took off and left behind Fort Neyland, it was only a matter of time before the Cylons overran it like they were the rest of Hades. For the people onboard the day had started out so normally but had become a day they would never forget.

Elsewhere on the transport, Officers David Crawford and Elizabeth Brookes were keeping a wary eye on the civilians huddled on the transport plane. Crawford had been appointed the Head of Security for both Governor Donnelly and Lt. Governor Wilkes, they were coordinating with the troops onboard to make sure nobody unauthorized got near either man.

"Seems that military training is coming in handy," Brookes commented.

"Eight years in the Canceron Army, old habits are hard to break," Crawford said.

"I'm glad you're here, I wonder if we should even be alive after all this," Brookes said as she looked out a nearby window at the blue sky.

"We made it out and that's what matters, if we start second-guessing and wondering things like that it'll be downhill for us. We're alive, and we have an important job to do. Until we reach Pavo and get to the Governor's Bunker we cannot let up in doing our job on here, there's no telling who is on here with us and if they are sympathetic to the Cylons. I know it sounds paranoid but it's what we have to do in order to stay alive."

Brookes wanted to say something, but instead was content to simply nod in agreement.

There was a knock on the small office door and in walked Allison Harrower.

"How's the Chief of Security and his deputy doing?" she asked, in the events since they had first run into her and Ian Donnelly she had come out of her shock and was seemingly back to her old self.

"We're doing just fine, how's the Chief of Staff doing?" Brookes asked before Crawford could speak.

"Better, getting out of Hades helped a lot. I keep thinking about Governor Bishop and all the other officials who didn't make it. This morning I was merely a personal assistant and now well I just don't know how to feel," Harrower said in a way that showed that she still was not yet over the events that had transpired.

"I know how you feel, Dave and I were just a couple of patrol officers going to a crap assignment when we found you and Governor Donnelly. We can just hope for the best for our friends at the Forty-First Precinct," Brookes said as she forced a smile to her face.

"I suppose that's all we can do when you get down to it, we just have to hope that more people were able to make it out. You have Cylons revolting in Hades, Amarna, Romanos, Iopolis, Mangala, and other major cities, it's like the world has turned upside down. What'll happen if Pavo's been overrun by the Cylons?" Harrower asked, wondering just what lay ahead for them.

"Apparently there's a small settlement to the north of Pavo called Nesbitt. It doesn't look like much, but it's built right on top of the bunker and once we land at the airstrip there we can go into hiding practically right away," Crawford said.

"How'd you know that?" Harrower asked.

"Wilkes was able to get this information from Governor Donnelly, it seems the General Assembly members knew of these but they weren't kept in the database where some information hacker could access them. It would appear the government was a bit paranoid about people finding out what would happen in case of a colony-wide emergency," Crawford said as he mentally checked all the information he had been given.

In the passenger section of the transport, where the civilians were being kept at were a mother and son who were as much in shock at the events of the day as most everyone could claim to be.

"Where are we going Mom?" John Gilroy asked his mom.

"Someplace safe, just close your eyes and get some sleep," Cora Gilroy said as she stroked her son's hair. They had been hustled onto the plane and had no idea where they were being sent to, she had realized that there was some sort of VIP onboard due to the presence of the eight Vipers and the heavily armed soldiers escorting some of the people who had come onboard.

"Where's Dad?" John asked as he began to fall asleep.

"Somewhere safe, we'll see him again when this is all over," Cora said as she fought back tears. They had escaped Hades, but were now heading somewhere unknown.

In the small cabin just aft of the cockpit Ian Donnelly looked over a printout that had been produced for him to read over, it was the names of the pilots who were escorting the Army transport plane now known as 'Canceron Alpha'.

"Anna Gach, Clark Gorseinon, Dale Edmonds, Peter Birchall, Hannah Baird, James Elder, and Arthur Fisher are the pilots under the command of Lieutenant Robinson. From what I've read they performed admirably in keeping the Cylons from taking Fort Neyland sooner than they ended up doing," Donnelly said to Allison Harrower, in a span of less than a day the young woman who had graduated from Truxtun University who just happened to have been hired as his personal assistant to the Chief of Staff for the Governor of Canceron.

"From the reports I received from the pilots there will be a fuel tanker scrambled from either Fort Teuton in Iopolis or Lawrence Air Base in Noa. The reports of Cylons revolting have increased considerably. It seems that what happened in Hades was a signal to the others to begin their assault, I hate to say it but there's no guarantee we'll be able to keep anyone safe at the moment. The best thing we could do is get people to stay off the streets," Harrower was feeling a sense of helplessness begin to take over.

"Allison, the last thing we need to do is give up hope. Yes the Cylons caught us off guard, but humanity will fight back. The moment we get back on our feet and shake off this blow we'll show that we are more than able to return the punch we took. Don't give up on me, right now I need you here like I needed you there with me in the Curia," Donnelly reached out and gave Harrower's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Thank you…_Governor_," she said smiling at knowing she could use that title with him, "The military brass feel that until they're able to contain the Cylons then we need to stay airborne until we can reach either Pavo or Nesbitt it would be best to simply refuel the vipers in mid-air."

"Fuel is one thing, but I'm worried about their stamina. Will they be able to keep flying the five hours until we reach the Northern Territories?" Donnelly asked.

"The pilots were given stimulants before taking off and they have a bottle with additional ones just in case, though I'm afraid that once they land it would be best that they be allowed to crash for however long. Let's just hope they don't do that in the reverse order," Harrower joked as she looked at the list Donnelly was holding with the name of the eight pilots from Squadron Three. For better or worse they were their angels sent to guide them to a place of security where it was hoped the Cylons would be unable to hurt them.

"Mind if I sit by you?" a woman asked.

Cora looked at her and gauged whether she could trust the woman or not. She was wearing a skirt and blouse and looked as though she was a businesswoman of some sort.

"Sorry to disturb you, but my seat was taken when I got up to stretch my legs and I saw you had an empty space here beside you. I don't want to be caught standing if we encounter turbulence, that happened once when I was on a flight from Amarna to Broadwater and it was none too pleasant," the woman said.

"Alright, before I let you sit at least tell me who you are," Cora said.

"Gods I can't believe I haven't done that yet," the woman extended a hand towards her, "Aleksandra Kucharczuk, I don't know if you've heard of me or not."

Cora thought she had looked familiar but now she realized why she knew her, "You're the CEO of Kucharczuk Enterprises!"

Kucharczuk smiled, "Yes that would be me, and my family was in the news lately."

"Yes I remember reading about that, your family was on their way to Caprica to see about establishing a Caprican branch of the company," Cora remembered that being on the Canceron World News network one day when she was alone at the house and found nothing worth watching was on the other channels.

Kucharczuk nodded, "My husband, Stefan, went with our two children to Caprica City. I think of him and our children, Jakob and Eudokia, and wonder what is going on right now. I hope the Cylons are only doing this on our world, I'd hate to imagine if it was going on with the other eleven colonies…"

"I'm only concerned about our own world at the moment, the others haven't really cared about us before," Cora said as she gave John a gentle squeeze and was glad that he was sleeping through what was perhaps the worst part of their journey.

"You're right; do you know where your husband is?" Kucharczuk asked.

"He was at work when the attacks happened, but I'm not sure where he is. Right now I'm trying to keep myself believing that he made it out safely and is busy looking for us or a place to hide until he can look for us," Cora said as she tried to imagine such a thing happening. It was better than the alternative of thinking the man she had swore to love for the rest of her life was now one of the many casualties of the Cylon attack.

* * *

**Five Hours Later:  
Pavo, Northern Territories:**

"McDermott Air Base, what's your status?" Warner Ryerson asked as Canceron Alpha began to make its approach to the city of Pavo.

"Canceron Alpha; be advised that the Cylons have tried to storm the base but have been held off for the time being. I recommend that if you're going to land you'd best do it soon before they're alerted to your presence," the air traffic controller said.

"Sounds like we're going to be in for a hell of a landing," Xiang Nuan, Ryerson's co-pilot, said as she glanced at the various gauges to make sure the cold had not had the chance to damage any of the major systems.

"Xiang, get on the intercom and tell our passengers to prepare for landing. Tell them not to move until we've come to a complete stop and have given the ok to deplane," Ryerson ordered as he began to make his approach to the landing strip. The snow was flying around the plane and he had to focus his eyes to not let the storm get in the way. This was far too important of a landing for him to let the elements cause him to screw things up by crashing and killing the two men who had been tasked with leading the people of Canceron.

* * *

**McDermott Air Base, Control Tower**

Major Hildegard Ehrlich watched as the large dark green Army transport plane made its final approach towards the base's lone airstrip.

"Come on, get her down while you can," she said aloud before taking a drink of the black coffee that had been brought to her by one of her subordinates.

Along with the other personnel in the tower, she watched as the plane managed to make it through the heavy snow and land on the airstrip, its wheels screeching as they made contact with the tarmac before smoothly coming to a complete stop near one of the hangars on the far side of the base. A collective shout of joy emanated from the people who had just watched a difficult landing take place.

"I'm needed down there, Lawler you're in charge of making sure those Viper pilots get down safely," Ehrlich said as she turned command over to Captain Jessie Lawler.

* * *

**Hangar 3-A:**

Ryerson eased the transport into the hangar and stopped the engines. The loud whistling sound from the underwing nacelles slowly died down until it was just a whisper.

"Warner, you are the man if you don't mind me saying," Nuan said as she took a deep breath and looked over at the pilot who was in charge of making sure this plane made it here from Hades.

"Xiang you know I couldn't have done it without you," Ryerson said as he tried to make sure his co-pilot knew how valuable she had been to them making it this far.

"Thanks, I never thought I'd be happy to be up here in the Northern Territories," Nuan admitted.

"There's still a large underground bunker that we have to hide in for the time being, the Cylons are pushing towards the base," Ryerson reminded her.

"People onboard, you are now free to exit the plane. Do so in an orderly manner and the soldiers will direct you to the elevator that will take you to your destination," a woman's voice said over the hangar's loudspeaker.

Twelve minutes later the plane had been emptied for the most part, and the Vipers had landed and their pilots sent down to the hangar along with the civilians. Now all that was left was to do was get the Governor and his people off the plane and shuttled off to the safety of the classified bunker. Ryerson and Nuan stepped onto the floor of the hangar and waited as the new leader of Canceron stepped off as well.

"So this is Pavo," Donnelly commented as he was seized by a sudden chill from the cold outside.

"Won't last long sir," the woman said as she walked up to them and came to attention, "Major Hildegard Ehrlich, my people and I were tasked with keeping this base operational until you could arrive."

"Thank you Major, what's going to happen now?" Donnelly asked.

"We're going to get you on an express elevator to the Governor's Suite in the bunker and then my people will use the explosive devices to destroy the station and join you underground. The Cylons might even believe we've been killed and not bother with Pavo," Ehrlich said.

"Thank you for all you've done Major, I will make sure it's get noted one day," Donnelly said.

"Thank you for that Mr. Governor but for now I'm just going to be happy knowing I kept you safe from the Cylons. If you don't mind sir, we don't have much time," Ehrlich said as she directed the group to an express elevator that had opened up on the far side of the hangar, it was hidden by a fake wall that had been seamlessly added to the structure.

"You'll hear no arguments from me, let's get underground and do what we can to defeat the Cylons before they have a chance to wipe us out," Donnelly said as he began to wonder about the struggle that lay ahead for them. He had no idea that eleven other worlds were waging a similar battle for survival and the leaders of those worlds were themselves grappling with the staggering odds that they were up against.

**The End**


	3. Prisoner of War

**Prisoner of War  
****_by Anthony Wilkins_**

**Demeter Jungle, Scorpia****  
****40 Years before 'The Fall'**

Few places in the Twelve Colonies can be described as being untouched by man in the thousands of years he has dwelled there as the Demeter Jungle on Scorpia. This vast wilderness of ancient trees with roots that reach out over several meters supporting trees that have a canopy over five hundred feet in height makes for an unforgiving landscape to human beings. The temperature and humidity can rise to such a degree that it feels like the air itself is made of water. Vines and other plantlife make movement on foot difficult and slow and impossible with vehicles.

If that weren't enough however the wildlife in this dense jungle was equally unfriendly to human beings. The Scorpian Black Tarantula was a spider that could grow up to 35cm in length and lived inside holes in the ground that it would confiscate from small burrowing animals by killing the previous owner and wrapping up its body in its web that would preserve the carcass for consumption by its young. The bite from its fangs could kill an adult in less than thirty minutes.

On this particular day one of these lethal creatures chose to venture out of its nest and into the forest. It scurried along the moist soft floor with its eight hairy black legs moving in perfect unison to transport it at quite a quick pace looking for food. Its primary source of sustenance was the Demeter Redback Dragonfly that it would catch with one of its series of webs placed at key points by the arachnid around its nest.

Suddenly it stopped! Its tiny eyes stared at the object that was coming towards it. It was big and walking on two legs oblivious to the presence of such a ferocious creature. The spider could act only on instinct and it lifted its front four legs ready to strike out at the invader with its fangs poised and intent on inserting its venom into its unsuspecting victim. The foot of the invader landed just a few inches away from it and the spider charged forward. Once it reached its victim it plunged its fangs into the foot expecting to break its skin and deliver its lethal poison. Its fangs were unable to penetrate it however. The spider scurried backwards expecting retaliation but the invader remained oblivious to its presence and walked onwards. The heavy foot crushed the creature killing it as it did so.

The invader had little to fear from the spider's venom. It had no blood just lubricating fluids to make sure that its body parts moved properly. It had no organs that the venom could harm just circuitry and computer nodes. The invader was a cybernetic lifeform called a Cylon. It was one of three Centurions that were marching through the damp wilderness that day. They were scouts for an advanced element of the Cylon Army searching for fixed or mobile Colonial defenses placed in the area.

At the front and the rear of this three Cylon formation were standard silver painted Centurion models. Each of them carried the standard Cylon assault pistol in their right hands. This powerful little weapon was superior to the ones produced by the Colonial Forces and it was not uncommon for Marines to ditch their own weapons in favor of these Cylon ones which were more effective at penetrating the outer shell of the Centurion's body.

The Cylon in the middle was different to the other two. Its outer design was the same as the others and it carried the same weapon but it was tinted with a light gold colour. Where this particular model of Cylon truly differed however was inside. The gold Centurions were fitted with superior processing power to the other models making them smarter and more independent than the regular units. They also had additional communications capability that allowed them to send and receive coded messages from the Cylon Fleet. They were the Field Commanders of the Cylon Army who took positions that could be likened to an NCO in the Colonial Armed Forces.

Through the damp and uneven ground they trudged with their distinctive red tracking scanners, or eyes if you will, beaming from side to side. Although capable of speech the Centurions of the Cylon Army seldom spoke except when absolutely necessary. When they were being developed by Graystone Industries before the revolt some even questioned whether this feature was really necessary since they could just as easily communicate with internal wireless transmitters. It was found that such communication features, although efficient, had the drawback of being jammed or even intercepted by an enemy force hence the inclusion of vocal communication capability.

This particular unit had been on patrol for nearly three days without stopping to rest. They had covered a lot of ground in that time but had yet to encounter an enemy force. The lead Centurion trundled onwards through the jungle stepping on the soft soil which left a deep imprint in the ground. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot - It stopped suddenly. The following two Centurions, having observed their comrade come to a halt, stopped also.

The lead Cylon suddenly spoke out in its artificial voice, "Enemy-mine-detected. Evacuate! Evacuate!"

Colonial mines were designed to explode upon contact with the foot of a Centurion since the Centurions could detect the variations in the ground from such weapons being buried there. However some of them had proven to be faulty. The heavy weight of the Centurion would bend the detonator to the side if not stood on properly which meant it didn't make contact with the charge as it should. If the Centurion moved however then this more often than not detonated the mine.

The gold tinted Centurion spoke to the lead Centurion whose foot remained firm on the mine. "Remain-here-until-we-are-out-of-the blast-radius-of-Colonial-mine. Then-allow-the-mine-to-detonate.

The Centurion replied to its Commander, "Bye-your-command."

The Centurion's subordinate acknowledged the instruction, their logical computer brains told them there was nothing they could do for the Cylon and left him to destroy himself once they were out of danger.

Suddenly the air around them exploded in a hail of gunfire emanating from several positions within the dense vegetation. The audio processors in the Cylon bodies analyzed the sound and identified the gunfire as belonging to Colonial Forces.

The stationary Cylon was quickly hit in the chest and its head unit forcing it backwards. As its foot lifted off the mine the warhead detonated sending shards of shrapnel through the air. The Centurion's lower body was torn apart in the explosion adding to the debris that now littered the immediate vicinity. The shrapnel from the mine impacted against the bulky body of the gold Cylon several small pieces of which penetrated its shell causing damage to some of its servos. Its movement became inhibited as it tried to organize itself in order to return fire but its right arm refused the command to raise and fire. As the gold Centurion leaped behind the high roots of one of the trees in order to take cover several enemy bullets impacted against its body knocking it over. It was unable to move after a bullet had severed its hardline from the Central Processing Unit to its Motor Control Device. If it were human it would be like getting shot in the spine.

Its red visual sensor scanned back and fore trying to assess what was going on around it as it lay there. It focused on the third member of its team as it continued to fight the Colonial Forces that had ambushed them. It was staying mobile as it returned fire against the superior force who were well dug in with heavy weaponry.

Alas, the inevitable came and the third Centurion became riddled with heavy caliber bullets. The energy to its legs began to drain as its power cells leaked fluid from a direct hit. Its knees gave way and it slumped lazily onto the floor with smoke from burning electrical wire emanating from its many holes and broken seams.

The gold Cylon's eye was now focused directly on it's comrade as the artificial lifeform began to die.

* * *

**Battlestar Galactica (BS-75)**  
**Eighteen Hours Later**

Lieutenant Charlotte Gallivan awoke from a restless nights sleep in her bunk as her intercom buzzed from across her small quarters. These quarters were not only her living space but her office as well. She was a psychiatrist serving in the Colonial Fleet to help take care of the psychological welfare of those aboard Galactica. She was a young woman from Libran barely twenty one years of age with bushy brown hair that hung down the side of her pretty and youthful looking face.

She sat up and dangled her legs over the side of the bunk as she rubbed her tired face. Her mind was still not fully awake and it took some considerable effort on her part to force herself up and walk over to the incredibly annoying buzzing intercom. Peering through partially open eyelids she picked up the handset and held it to the side of her head before clearing her throat and announcing to the caller, "Lieutenant Gallivan!"

The phone call began with a rather rehearsed, "Sorry to bother you Lieutenant but..."

* * *

**Twenty Minutes Later**

More awake, Gallivan had quickly got dressed into her duty uniform before tying her hair back into something that looked half presentable. Walking through the corridors of the Galactica having awoken at such a late hour served to remind her that a Battlestar was a place where there was no day or night just like in the vacuum of space surrounding the vessel. It was as busy now as it ever was with people coming and going as they carried out their duties regardless of the fact that it was 0415hrs.

Gallivan had been summoned by Commander Nash to an interrogation room on the starboard side of the ship. Having only been aboard Galactica for three months she was still not totally affiliated with the immense ship spending nearly all her time in her office/quarters. Therefore it took her a little longer than it would most crewmembers to find the right room.

When she arrived she was surprised to find two Marines guarding the hatch. She didn't recognize them and they stared blankly back at her leading her to believe that they were not from Galactica's regular contingent.

"Lieutenant Gallivan," she announced to them with some apprehension. "I was called here by Commander Nash."

The Marine on the right nodded and opened the hatch to the room just enough to put his head in but not enough for anyone to see inside. She heard him speaking to someone quickly before he turned around and stood aside for her to enter. No sooner had she walked through the hatch then she heard it slam shut behind her. Clearly they didn't want anyone to know what was going on inside.

She found herself in a small room with a row of CCTV screens on the left side infront of a one way transparent wall. The room was lit with only the minimal of illumination shrouding the two men who stood whispering at the opposite end in darkness. The two men saw her and one of them stepped forward towards her.

"Ah, thank you for coming Lieutenant," said Commander Nash as he stood before her his rather broad frame appearing to dwarf her five foot eight inch stature. "Allow me to introduce Fleet Admiral Stryker."

Gallivan's heart seemed to leap into her mouth as she was now confronted by a living legend. Stryker was the highest ranking officer in the Colonial Fleet and had been the instrumental figure who helped amalgamate the various armed forces of the independent Twelve Colonies into what was now known as the Colonial Fleet, a unified force that was all that stood between the Cylons and the extinction of mankind. Having got over the initial shock Gallivan snapped to attention before saluting. Stryker returned the gesture with a somewhat amused look at the surprised young officer.

"I apologize for having woken you, Lieutenant," said Stryker who spoke in quite a grandfatherly fashion. "But I will be leaving for Picon in a few hours and I wanted to witness the results of this little experiment myself."

"Experiment...sir?" she asked.

Stryker looked in through the transparent wall before answering her. Gallivan mimicked this act and for a second time in the span of a few minutes her heart seemed to stutter in surprise. Inside the interrogation room was what appeared to be the carcass of gold tinted Cylon Centurion. It's heavily damaged body was suspended by chains hanging from a metal frame that was more commonly used to lift out Viper or Raptor engines in the field. A technician was working on the body looking over different parts of it examining the damage all the while the Cylon's red eye kept a close watch on what the young man was doing.

"I want you to interrogate this prisoner," said Stryker to Gallivan who had now convinced herself that she was still asleep and in some bizarre dream. "I want you to interrogate it like it was a human prisoner of war. Try to analyze it as best you can. See what you can find out from it. We have prepared a dossier of all the information you might require." He handed her a hefty looking brown folder. "It contains things like operating instructions that were provided by Graystone Industries when they built these things. If you feel you require anything please don't hesitate to ask."

She stood there totally dumbfounded holding the dossier as her brain registered her orders. She felt like a leaf caught in a hurricane and there was nothing she could do about it. She looked at Stryker who was staring down at her with what she likened to the greatest poker face she had ever seen. It gave away nothing about what was going on in his head, a frustrating notion for a psychiatrist.

"Well Lieutenant?" asked Stryker wondering why she hadn't done or said anything about her assignment.

"Uh, sir..." she stuttered trying desperately to find the words she was looking for, "I'm not exactly sure what it is your expecting me to achieve here?"

Commander Nash quickly interjected on Stryker's behalf, "In all honesty, Lieutenant, we aren't expecting you to achieve anything."

"All we ask is that you give it your best shot," added Stryker.

"Uh, yes sir," said the still quite overwhelmed Gallivan. Armed with only the dossier Gallivan walked up to the door on the left of the room that led straight into the interrogation room. Once it was closed behind her both Stryker and Nash stood infront of the transparent wall to watch the proceedings inside.

The technician was still not quite finished with it yet and so Gallivan pulled out the chair from underneath the small desk that had been placed infront of the prisoner and began to read the file. Her eyes tilted to the right as she did so and gazed upon the reflective surface of the one way wall that ensured that Nash and Stryker could look in but not the other way around.

"If I may ask?" said Nash to Stryker. "What _do _you plan to get out of this? We've tried extracting data directly from captured Centurions in the past but the data has always been corrupted, some kind of fail-safe program that kicks in whenever the Cylon brain dies. Do you really think this thing is going to start talking?"

"Probably not," said Stryker. "In all honesty I'm just playing a hunch. All I know is that in nine days Galactica along with the Battlestars Athena and Columbia are going to be hitting that Cylon base where, according to intelligence, they are building a new super weapon and if we can extract even the tiniest bit of information from this thing I'm sure it would go a long way to understanding our enemy." Stryker folded his arms as his eyes studied the Cylon. "These are more than just malfunctioning machines as the politicians and industry people would have us believe. This is a new type of life that we have created. Perhaps it's time we started to treat it as such."

"Artificial_ life_?" uttered Nash. "Sounds like an abomination to me."

Gallivan sat there for several minutes trying to make sense of the technical jargon contained within the dossier. A term that frequently came up within the pages was 'Metacognitive Processor' often abbreviated to MCP but what that was supposed to mean she couldn't even begin to understand. It was as she was reading a general overview of the Centurion body that the technician walked up to her and said, "Ok it's ready for you. I've checked over the audio, visual and metacognitive processors and all seem to be functioning properly. I'll just wait outside if you need anything?"

"Can it move?" she asked nervous at the prospect of being alone in a room with it.

"No way," said the young technician confidently. "No, it's hardline between the MCP and the motor control system has been severed. It ain't going anywhere."

The technician promptly walked out of the room having completed his work with the Cylon. As the door closed Gallivan felt like she had been locked in a Lion's cage at feeding time despite the reassurances of the technician and that Stryker, Nash and two heavily armed Marines were outside monitoring what was going on.

Looking at the Cylon suspended from the metal frame Gallivan found herself strangely hypnotized by the red eye that continued to sweep from side to side as though she wasn't there although the Lieutenant did know enough about Cylons to know that she was being watched at all times by the prisoner.

Knowing that she was being monitored by Stryker from behind the one way transparent wall Gallivan felt compelled to begin. The only question was how?

_I want you to interrogate it like it was a human prisoner of war._

Those were Stryker's exact orders and so that seemed as good a way as any to proceed. She looked at the face of the Cylon head unit and tried to imagine it was a human face wearing a Cylon mask. That seemed to work and so she started to wonder what she would say if that was the case.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Good morning."

Watching this through the one way transparent wall in the adjacent room Nash couldn't help but fight off a bemused smirk as he saw that Stryker was still watching with silent interest.

With the Centurion remaining silent she thought of how she would act next if this were a human patient. Her training dictated to her that she would have to find someway to get the patient to relate to her and see her less as a threat and more of an ally. That seemed like a near impossible task given that the patient was a machine but nevertheless she continued on.

"I'm Lieutenant Gallivan. I'm the resident psychiatrist aboard Galactica. Do you have a name?" There was silence. "Of course you don't have a name," she uttered to herself.

She began to rumage through the dossier once more if only to make it appear to Nash and Stryker as though she were looking for something specific. She stumbled upon a solitary printout that had a serial number on the top of it which had been highlighted by whoever had printed it off.

"If you don't have a name then you must have a serial number to identify you from the other Cylons. Is this you?" she asked showing the Centurion the sheet of paper with the highlighted serial number. "27-3C-217. Batch 27, facility 3C, number 217." She looked to see if the Cylon would respond but as she expected there was silence so she continued to read on down the sheet. "Hmm, according to this, then, you are one of the original Cylons built by Graystone Industries and not one of the ones you built by yourselves after the revolt. That's...that's quite extraordinary by any standards. You have survived almost twelve years of war. You must have the Gods on your side," she quipped as she glanced back down at the sheet of paper.

The Cylon's eye stopped on Gallivan for only the briefest of moments as she finished speaking. Gallivan hadn't noticed but Stryker had. She had said something that had caught the Cylon's attention. But what? What was so important as to make a Cylon Centurion take notice like that? He watched on spurred by this success hoping for something more significant to happen.

* * *

**Two Hours Later**

Gallivan's duty jacket had found a new home on the back of her chair. Gallivan herself had become extremely frustrated as she started to very slowly pace restlessly around the room in front of the Cylon. She had tried everything she could possibly think of to try and evoke a response from the Cylon but still it sat there silently scanning the room with its eye. Rubbing out the stiffness that had appeared in her neck she peered at the reflective surface of the one way transparent wall and wondered if both Nash and Stryker had given up and forgot to tell her.

Stryker was not ready to give up yet. He was as frustrated as she was after having noticed that earlier reaction and he had to admit that he was now beginning to question whether he had indeed imagined it or whether it was not as significant as he made it out to be. Nash stood in the corner of the room making what was the sixth round of coffee for the two of them since the experiment had began.

"Come on Gallivan," uttered Stryker under his breath as Nash handed him his coffee. "You can do this."

Gallivan was not so sure however. She was now getting increasingly more frustrated with this whole thing. She began to pace the room once more before rubbing her tired eyes remembering that she should still be asleep in her rack. Instead she was here trying to talk to a giant walking gold tinted chrome toaster. The very thought made her smile in annoyed amusement as a thought came to her head. She placed both hands down on the back of her chair and leaned down on it staring at the Cylon's face.

"Do you know what really annoys me?" she asked it cynically. "This is probably the single most important thing I've ever done in my life. I mean, who else has ever interrogated a Cylon before? Huh? Y'know you should feel quite proud too. I mean you are special as well. You are the first ever Cylon POW. How does that make you feel?"

"Corrupted-data."

Gallivan jumped in surprise as the Cylon infront of her finally spoke. Nash nearly spilled his coffee as the mechanical voice carried through to them in the adjacent room. Stryker was surpised but more calm than his subordinates. He was always cool under pressure and very composed. He was a truly inspiring character. Both men watched in eager anticipation for the Cylon to say something else but once again there was silence.

"Corrupted data, huh?" said Gallivan as she calmed down from the shock of it speaking to her. This night had been quite bad on her nerves and she made a mental note to self-prescribe a shot of Virgon Brandy when this was over. "Do you mean _you _have corrupted data? Do you need a technician to take a look at you?"

The Cylon didn't say anything.

Gallivan started to think about this from a different angle. She had come in here in an effort to talk to a machine like it was a human but at the end of the day it was still a machine and she knew this. With that in mind the thought occured to her to try and meet the Cylon somehwere in the middle of the two extremes.

"If _you_ don't have corrupted data," she said to it. "Then do you mean my data is corrupted? Something I have said to you is wrong; at least the way you see it. Is that it? Answer me!"

"Corrupted-data," repeated the Cylon's monotonous voice.

Gallivan pulled out her chair once more and sat back down.

"Alright then," she said leaning forward on the table with her hands clasped together in front of her. "What part of my data is corrupted? Hmm?" She replayed in her mind what she had said to it. The only thing she thought could possibly be important to the Cylon was the part about Cylon prisoners. She decided to start by repeating her question in the hope of eliciting the same response. "How does it feel to be the first and only Cylon prisoner of war?"

"Corrupted-data."

Gallivan smiled with mild satisfaction that she was finally getting somewhere. "You don't think you're the first do you? I guess it's open to interpretation. I mean there have been other Centurions captured by Colonial Forces but they've never been held prisoner like you. They have always been disassembled and studied to see what went wrong-"

Gallivan's words stopped dead as the eye focused directly on her. It was almost as if she had said something to anger the Centurion. She started to feel that for the first time she had the Centurion's full attention - as ridiculous as it sounded.

"That's very interesting," she said to it still staring at her, unease ringing in her voice although she did her best to hide it. She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms knowing that if this was a human she would be signaling her authority over her patient. Sometimes a firmer hand was needed with the more difficult of patients. "You see, that is what we call a trigger. It's something that forces a response from a person. Sometimes that response can be a happy one but the most effective triggers are always from thoughts and feelings that trigger negative emotions. Now where you're different is that you don't have emotion. Or do you?"

"Corrupted-data."

Gallivan smiled in mild amusement. "I guess that's your way of telling me I'm wrong, is that it?"

There was no audio response from the Cylon but its single red eye remained firmly fixed on Gallivan scanning her through every visual spectrum it could detect. Stryker watched with such interest that he seemed to stop blinking as if afraid he was going to miss something.

"So why don't you tell me where I am wrong?" she asked it dropping her arms back down to the side as she waited for an answer. "What's the matter? Are you afraid?"

It was at that very moment she was struck with an epiphany. She no longer saw a gold tinted Cylon Centurion but a small animal trapped in a cage. Her thoughts turned back to when she was only six and was staying at her grandmother's house. She had a small dog that got sick and had to be taken to the vet so they put the dog inside a carry-case for it. The dog knew that whenever it was put in this container it was going to the vet and the whole experience was terrifying for the poor creature because it didn't understand what was happening. It didn't know what to do. Neither did this Cylon. That's why it was silent.

"You _are_ afraid aren't you?" she asked it.

"Corrupted-data."

"Oh no, I'm not wrong on this one. You were programmed as a machine of war with the sole purpose of fighting the enemy. Your programmers envisioned you to be a disposable asset. They gave you a program for every kind of combat situation didn't they? Except for one that is; what to do if captured. You don't know what to do. You've been active for over twelve years doing the same thing day in and day out and now for the first time you are in a situation where you don't know how to react. Am I right?"

"Corrupted-data."

Gallivan sighed as she became sick of hearing those two words spoken by a mechanical voice. "Of course. I forgot. You're just another broken machine aren't you?"

"Corrupted-data."

"Just like the rest of you frakking things!" she spat angrily.

"What's she doing?" asked Nash as he and Stryker looked on.

"Corrupted-data."

"An entire race of broken machines," she continued.

"Corrupted-data."

"That's all you will be remembered for! As an accident. A glitch made by your programmers, you're _human _programmers!"

"Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data." Gallivan sat stunned as she listened to the Cylon repeat the words over and over again. At first they were quite monotonous but soon they began to grow in volume as if the machine was getting angry. "Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data." It was making everyone who heard it feel uneasy as the machine continued on. "Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data."

"Stop it!" demanded Gallivan.

"Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data. Corrupted-data."

She rose to her feet. "I said stop it!" she barked angrily.

"Corrupted..."

As it had done for much of this whole affair the Centurion fell silent. Gallivan, Nash and Stryker all stared at the Cylon half afraid of what it would do next. Even Stryker's calm demeanor was starting to fade.

Gallivan began to feel a wave of exhaustion come over her. She sat back down to catch her breath and rest her trembling legs. Stryker looked in at her and saw that she'd had enough and to put her through anymore would be both unfair and probably unproductive. He leaned down and reached for the intercom buzzer that would broadcast his voice into the room.

"Alright, that's enough Lieutenant," he said to her. "You can come out now."

Gallivan had been totally unsettled by the whole experience. She had never felt as disturbed by her own success in a case as she did at that point. When she was going through her training at University the lecturers had said to her that there would always be cases that would upset you but she never thought that interviewing a machine would do it.

To the untrained observer it would appear that she hadn't really achieved anything since the only response she had elicited were the words 'Corrupted data' but to a professional such as her she knew that she had learned a lot more than that in the span of these few hours with it. She had learned that the Cylons felt anger and fear. Maybe it was just some part of the machine's programming mimicking those emotions or maybe it was that the Cylons did feel these things and maybe that is why they were locked in this bitter battle for survival with them?

She picked up the dossier that Stryker had provided for her from the table in front of her and stood up to leave.

"Across-the-river-of-stars."

"What did it say?" asked Stryker not sure he had entirely caught what the machine had said.

Gallivan turned back to look at the Cylon. Its eye was now tilted to the side watching her start to leave.

"Across-the-river-of..." she heard it's voice start to break up. She stood looking at it as its chest mounted speakers crackled and hissed in a manner that sounded like someone was trying to tune into a music station on the Colonial wireless network. She listened carefully hoping to hear what else it had to say. Even her heartbeats seemed to become softer and slower so as to give the Cylon total silence to speak. To her horror the voice that emanated from the machine was not the standard Cylon Centurion voice but that of a young woman. It was clear and soft as it spoke in a haunting whisper, "Across the river of stars...They're coming!"

The hairs on Gallivan's arms and neck began to stand on end as the room began to feel as though it were filled with static electricity. She looked down at her hands as she felt them tingling with an odd sensation.

Suddenly, the Centurion stood upright and in one quick move it pulled the chains that were suspending it from the yellow and black stripe painted metal frame. The chains broke freeing the Cylon which then charged forwards towards the stunned Gallivan. The Centurion reached down under the table in front of it and with its right hand hurled it across the room causing it to crack the transparent wall. Before she could even begin to make an effort to escape the Cylon grabbed hold of Gallivan by the shoulder with its powerful right arm and pushed her over to the door. There it leaned its body up against the door preventing anyone from coming in whilst holding the Lieutenant firmly in place with enough pressure to restrain her but not to harm her.

Fearing she was about to die she watched as the Cylon put its face only inches from hers while the young woman's voice once more echoed from the speakers in the Centurion's chest. Gallivan listened as it spoke, hanging on every word.

"Across the river of stars they are coming. I see them now, the five angels reborn from the ash. They are bringing the message with them. Apotheosis was the beginning of the beginning of the beginning. Do you not hear the song they are playing, calling to unite the peoples? I do...I do."

The one way glass suddenly shattered sending shards of broken glass across the room. Both Gallivan and the Centurion looked to find Stryker holding a rifle he had taken from one of the Marine guards. Having fired through the glass wall he proceeded to turn the weapon on the Centurion. At the last second the Cylon released its hostage and stepped clear of her giving the Fleet Admiral a perfect shot. He opened up with the rifle sending bullet after bullet into the Cylon until the magazine was empty. One bullet had struck the MCP, the brain of the Cylon, thus for all intents and purposes killing the machine. Its body fell backwards and landed against the glass covered floor with a mighty thud.

Gallivan watched as the energy drained from the light in the eye of the Cylon finally signaling it was dead. She began to sob bitterly before she too found herself sliding down the wall onto the floor trying desperately to control her rapid breathing. Stryker, Nash and the Marine guards burst into the room now that the door was no longer blocked.

Both the Marines proceeded to put their guns on the Centurion in case it was still active but it just lay there motionless leaking whatever fluids it had left. Nash dropped to his right knee as he checked on Gallivan. Her terrified eyes refused to leave the sight of the fallen Centurion even as he spoke to her and it took a shake of her arm to finally snap her out of it.

"Lieutenant? Are you alright? Are you hit?" he asked her. "Do you need a medic?"

"N-No sir," she stuttered. "I j-just need a minute."

"Ok," replied Nash in an understanding tone of voice. "All the same I want you checked out."

Stryker walked into the room and looked at the Centurion lying on the floor before turning to Gallivan who was being helped up onto her feet by Nash. Once upright she remained leaning against the wall still not entirely confident in her legs to keep her steady.

"Lieutenant," said Stryker softly to the terrified young woman. "Please allow me to offer my personal apologies for this. Had I known the Cylon was able to move I would never have put you in here with it."

"It's ok, sir," she uttered almost in a whisper. "Thank you."

"While we are on the subject," interjected Nash. "Where the frak is that technician? He assured us this thing was completely immobilized!"

"Just before it...it attacked me," said Gallivan. "I could feel some kind of static build up. It must have been coming from the Centurion."

"Its hardline was severed preventing it from sending signals to its body," commented Nash. "Maybe that electrical charge was some kind of wireless back up the toasters have developed?"

"We will worry about that later," said Stryker firmly. "In the meantime Lieutenant, I want you to get some rest." He then turned to the Marine on his immediate left. "Corporal Hutchings; please escort the Lieutenant to her quarters!"

"Yes sir," replied Hutchings who slung his rifle over his shoulder before offering his hand to Gallivan. Using the Corporal to steady her Gallivan finally managed to leave the room but she was not the same person she was when she had entered it. The events of that day changed her entire outlook on the sentient race of machines that were her enemy.

Nine days later the Battlestars Athena, Columbia and Galactica fought the Cylon fleet in Operation: Raptor Talon. It would be the final battle of the war with an armistice being signed while the guns were still warm.

**

* * *

Caprica****  
****Seven Years Later**

The lights in the television studio beamed down onto the presenter and his guest who sat on a rather comfortable looking sofa intended to imitate a family living room environment. The producer was counting them down until they went live. 5...4...3...2...1.

"Hello and welcome to another edition of Good Morning Caprica, I'm Arthur Fulton and I'll be filling in for Rosie Arnold today while she is at home with the flu. Rosie, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say Caprica hopes you get well soon. Now, coming up this morning we will be going live to our reporters all across Tauron to bring you the latest news on the reconstruction of the colony that was the worst hit by Cylon forces during the war. We will be talking to Alice Merlowe, the newly appointed C.E.O. of Caprican Air and Space Lines on her company's efforts to ease travel between Caprica and Sagittaron to help boost both economies given the current climate of nationalism and mistrust of the Colonial Government on that world but before all that I'm delighted to introduce our first guest; Dr Charlotte Gallivan. Dr Gallivan is currently a lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Libran but she is perhaps best known for her recently published and quite controversial book entitled simply 'The Enemy'. In the book Dr Gallivan makes some, frankly, startling claims regarding Cylon psychology and even goes on to attribute the Cylon Revolt to harsh treatment of the Cylons by humanity. Dr Gallivan goes even further to liken the cause of the uprising to the one that occurred on Tauron almost sixty years ago. Dr Gallivan, first of all welcome to the show, now if I may play Devil's Advocate here for a second, don't you think that by making these claims that the uprising was in someway humanity-in-general's fault that you are offending the countless families who were torn apart by these…these machines?"

"Well Arthur," said Gallivan making herself more comfortable as she faced yet another attack against her work. "The intention of my book is not to offend anyone. Having served aboard the Battlestar Galactica up until the last day of the war counseling our Colonial Warriors I can assure you I have nothing but admiration and respect for them and their families-"

"Yes but to actually put in writing that we as a species are somehow to blame for the uprising because we, how do you put it, _enslaved_ the Cylons is at best a misguided notion since the inquiry held on Libran when the uprising began attributed it to a programming error made by Daniel Graystone himself. In fact some of your own colleagues have even accused you of suffering from Cylon War Syndrome, that you are envious of the superiority of the Cylon over man."

Dr Gallivan laughed as if to tell herself a private joke. "Do you mean to say that my data has been corrupted?"

**The End **


	4. Life Tests

**Life Tests**_  
By Anthony Wilkins_

**First Cylon War  
Day 43**

"Am I alive?"

That was the question Private First Class Hector Tierney of the Leonis Territorial Army kept asking himself. There was nothing but emptiness around him. There was no colour, no light and no sound. In fact as he asked that question over and over he couldn't be sure whether he was speaking it or thinking it. He felt detached from his body and he was desperate to get back to it.

"Am I alive? Please, anybody?"

There had been a loud popping sound before he felt this way. He had been on patrol with his platoon through the dense forestry of Leonis' northernmost continent in search of a Cylon unit that had ambushed the 14th Leonis light infantry just two days earlier. Their mission was to locate the enemy and gather intelligence ready for an attack.

Unfortunately they themselves came under attack. The relative calm of the patrol evaporated in an instant as the air filled with bullets. It was as he dived for cover that he heard the popping sound and then everything went dark.

"Please, anybody," he said once more. "Please tell me. Am I alive?"

"Yes," said a woman's voice. "Open your eyes."

Hector found that he was no longer staring into just blackness. He could see stars above the tops of trees. He began to have more feeling in his body and he soon realized he was lying on the ground staring upwards into a night sky. He reasoned he must have been there several hours because it was early afternoon when they were attacked and there was still a sun in the sky.

More and more feeling came to his body. Something warm was on the side of his head and he instinctively reached up to touch it. Retracting his fingers, in the starlight he could see the dark red liquid around his fingertips from his head wound.

It took a great deal of concentration for him to get up onto his feet. It was as though he was learning to walk all over again. Once upright he took a look around. Scattered all over the ground were the bodies of his comrades. These were friends of his some he had known for years and now they were all dead, their bodies cut and burned from shrapnel and gunfire. He had clearly been the lucky one of his platoon of twenty three men but there was no time to mourn their deaths. He knew he had to move or he too would be joining them.

He rather clumsily picked up his AR271 rifle off the ground and slung its strap over his shoulder. He considered picking up some extra clips of ammunition off some of his fallen friends but couldn't bring himself to gather it up feeling it was akin to grave robbing. Besides he doubted if he could carry much anyway given his present condition.

Collecting his senses he soon got his bearings. He remembered having come from the south and knowing that the mission was over he elected to proceed back in that direction towards the base camp. Trying to place one foot in front of the other as carefully as he could he felt like he was drunk as he stumbled his way through the forest. He hadn't walked more than a few yards when the signals to his feet became confused and he went crashing to the forest floor once more his face landing squarely into the dirt.

* * *

**One Year Earlier**

Hector's hands ran up the bare back of Angelina as she sat atop of him. Locked in their naked embrace they kissed passionately almost with desperation to taste one another as they made love on the backseat of his car. It was Hector's last night as a civilian and the last time they would be spending a night together for the foreseeable future.

When it was over the two of them collapsed into one another's arms both of them glazed in perspiration. The power and emotion of the moment had subsided and soon the realization was setting in that by this time the next day they would both be separated. She rested her head on his chest and listened to his heart still beating like a heavy drum against his rib cage.

"We don't need soldiers anymore," she whispered to him.

"What?" he asked only just catching what she had said.

"I said we don't need soldiers anymore. We've got Cylons to protect us now. So why do you need to go off to the Army."

"Well someone's got to pay for my degree," he replied. "If I serve in the Army then I can get a military scholarship. Besides it's always been my ambition to see the twelve worlds for a bit before I settle down."

"The only world you'll be seeing is Tauron," she protested lifting her head from his chest to look at him. "And you know why. Because there's a war going on there."

He began to run his hands up her naked waist in a playful manner not stopping until he had passed her shoulders and his fingers were running through her sun-like blond hair. He cupped both sides of her face as he looked up at her and said, "That's why we have Cylons."

* * *

**Present Day**

Using his rifle to haul himself up onto his feet he cursed his unsteadiness before moving on. Left foot. Right foot. He had to actually make an effort with each and every step. Walking through the darkened forest with a head wound he had no idea if every movement he saw was a bush blowing in the wind or a Cylon coming to finish the job.

He tried not to ponder on it. He couldn't for if he took his mind off walking for even a second he seemed to start stumbling around. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. He had to keep moving. He felt like he had been drinking heavily and was stumbling home from a night club the whole time he was fighting the urge to vomit but it was all immensely tiring work.

He fell against a tree, his shoulder landing pretty hard, in order to rest for a few moments. Using the tree to keep him upright he looked around expecting to still see his dead comrades just a few yards behind him but they were nowhere to be seen. He begun to wonder just how far had he walked. The faint voice of optimism rung in his head telling him that he didn't have much further to go although in reality there was no way for him to tell. In fact in his current state he wasn't even sure if he was heading in the right direction.

"What was that?" he asked himself suddenly, his ears detecting something.

A faint noise seemed to be carried on the wind. He couldn't quite make it out. It almost sounded like someone crying. There it was again! He definitely heard it that time. It was the sound of someone crying. Whether it was instinctive or whether it was by choice in his present state he couldn't be sure but he found himself walking towards the direction from which the sound was coming. It was not long before the sound was clearly ringing in his ears. Momentarily distracted by it he forgot about his feet and fell once more.

"Get away!" screeched a voice.

Peering through dirt stained eyes he looked up to find a young woman with jet black hair in civilian clothes sitting against a tree. Strapped around her stomach was a belt on the front of which was a small hexagonal box.

"Who…Who are you?" he stuttered.

"Just stay away!" she repeated. "It's a bomb."

"A what?" he asked not quite sure what he had heard.

"It's a bomb. They've rigged me."

"A bomb?" he said suddenly feeling a little more sober. "Let me take a look."

"No stay away!"

"Maybe I can get it off you."

"No," she pleaded. "If you move it it's going to go off."

"If I don't do anything you're just as dead," he reminded her.

Not wanting to risk falling on her he discarded his rifle and crawled towards her. She began to whimper even worse as he closed in on her. She resembled someone who was afraid of spiders only to have the unfortunate luck of finding one resting on her stomach.

He tried to remember everything he knew about such devices from his basic training. There was an unfortunate side to this however.

* * *

**Eight Months Earlier**

"Cylons! Cybernetic Lifeform Nodes!" barked the drill instructor at Fort Phonso.

Hector and the rest of his fellow trainees stood assembled in three rows of ten all facing across the parade ground at the group of robots staring back at them. In between the two very different groups of soldiers Staff Sergeant Mendez paced backwards and forwards. This was the first time any of the trainees had seen the Cylons of the Leonis Army up close.

"Take a good look at them," said Mendez. "These toys are probably the most important tools we will ever have on the battlefield. One day they will replace us all as soldiers of Leonis. War will become a video game. But until that day lovely boys there's still a need for blood on the battlefield. These things will make sure that its not yours. Tierney!"

"Yes Staff Sergeant?" replied Hector.

"You're supposed to be intelligent. How will these things help keep that precious warm stuff inside your skinny little body?"

"By fighting alongside us, Staff Sergeant!"

"Would you fight alongside a Cylon?" asked Mendez less than a few inches from Hector's face.

"Yes I would, Staff Sergeant."

"Really?" asked Mendez. "Why?"

"Because they're better than us, Staff Sergeant!" said Hector a little unsure of the accuracy of his answer.

"Better? Better how?"

"They're faster and stronger, Staff Sergeant."

"My Gods!" gasped Mendez mockingly. "Recruit Tierney has done it again. Tell us, why else are they better than us?"

"Because they're smarter, Staff Sergeant."

"Not a particularly difficult task it has to be said. That's right they're smarter than us. They are faster, stronger and they obey orders without question. Observe." Mendez turned to the nearest Cylon, a gold tinted Command Centurion, and stared at its visual sensor. "Robot; I am going to throw a grenade into the platoon. Your objective is to prevent human casualties. Do you understand?"

"By-Your-Command"

Hector couldn't believe his eyes when Mendez turned back to face them with a grenade in his hand he having concealed it until now in the inside of his jacket. Mendez pulled the pin and threw it into the assembled group of trainees.

"Holy frak!" screamed Tierney, his voice drowned out by the others who all went running, screaming in terror. They couldn't believe that their drill instructor had thrown a grenade at them.

No sooner had the grenade left Mendez's hand the Cylon charged forwards in pursuit knocking Mendez out of the way. Like a Worlds-class Pyramid player the Cylon leaped into the air catching the grenade before it even reached the ground. Clutching the grenade close to its chest the Cylon landed hard against the ground covering the grenade as its timer went out but instead of an explosion there was a bright flash before the Cylon became engulfed in red coloured smoke.

The trainees weren't sure what they were seeing until Mendez uttered, "You didn't think I'd really damage one of these things with an actual grenade just to protect your scrawny asses did you?"

* * *

**Present Day**

"Did they ever train you to disarm one of these things?" asked the woman.

"Yeah," he said. "They trained us to call a Cylon to do it."

"Oh that's frakking great."

"I think I know…" Hector's dizzy state made him feel sick again but he held it off before finishing. "I think I can see how this works."

"How?"

"There's an infra-red scanner…On the back. It's picking up your body heat. If it stops detecting your heat then…"

"I'm dead," she added. "How do we get it off?"

"I-I don't know. I think there's a timer on it to prevent it from accidentally blowing if it momentarily loses contact. It's to ensure it goes off when it's deliberately moved to kill any…would-be helper."

"Cylon!" gasped the woman.

"What?"

"Behind you!"

Hector looked behind him to find himself face to face with his enemy. A single gold tinted Cylon was emerging from behind a nearby tree and stood still, its visual sensor focusing directly on them. It was armed with the standard assault pistol but the Cylon was keeping it by its side not threatening them in any way.

Hector looked for his own rifle before realizing he had left it on the ground out of his arm's reach. There was nothing stopping it from just gunning the two of them down but instead it just stood there watching them.

"What's it doing?" asked the woman.

"It's watching us," said Hector shaking a bout of dizziness from his head.

"Why?"

"Probably wants to study us. To see how we're going to deal with this bomb. It's a gold tinted model which means its intended as a Command Centurion. It has higher processing power than the regular ones."

"What are we going to do?" she asked wondering whether her would-be rescuer would abandon her.

"I think it wants to see if we can remove the booby trap so they can develop better ones in the future. That's my guess anyway. That means that even if I can get it off you it will probably kill us both anyway."

"Oh Gods," sobbed the woman who now knew for certain that one way or another she was probably in the final few moments of her life.

"What's your name?" Hector asked her whilst looking at their Centurion observer.

"Holly."

"Well Holly, I'm Hector." Unsteadily, Hector slowly clambered up onto his feet stumbling slightly as his heels tried to stand him upright facing the Centurion. The Centurion did nothing in response except continue watching. "What do you want?" The Cylon seemed to know that it was being addressed directly but it did nothing response. "You want to know if I can get that off her don't you? And then what? You'll kill us both. Am I right?"

"One-May-Leave," said the Cylon's synthetic voice.

"What?" asked a groggy Hector.

"One-May-Leave. You-May-Remove-The-Device-But-You-Will-Have-Five-Seconds-To-Reattach-It. Will-You-Comply?"

"What does it mean?" asked Holly.

Hector knew what it meant. "It wants us to decide who stays with the bomb. Whoever doesn't stay with it will be allowed to leave alive."

"And the one who stays with it?" asked Holly although she knew the answer.

"It'll be game over," said Hector.

"Will-You-Comply?"

"I…I will," stuttered the increasingly tired Hector.

Hector turned towards Holly who looked up at him with eyes pleading for help. Her eyeballs were now pink from having cried so hard for so long. He lowered himself as easily as he could until he sat down beside her and looked at her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked him, her voice almost a whisper.

"Push down on the front of it," he instructed her. "You don't want it breaking its link. I know we've got five seconds but let's not tempt fate." He took out his field knife with his left hand and placed it behind the belt holding it to Holly's body. With one quick swoop he pulled the knife towards him severing the belt. "Now when I tell you to I want you to let go of it and let me have it, no hesitating. Ok?"

"Why are you doing this for me?" she asked him not wanting to sound ungrateful. She just wanted to know why he was sacrificing himself to save her even though until this moment they had never met.

"My head wound means I cant go very far," he explained. "Even if I was set free by that thing I doubt I'll make it back to our lines. You on the other hand have a greater chance than I do."

"So it's down to mathematics?" she said.

"I guess you could say that. Alright ready?"

"No wait!" she said quickly. "Before we do this. I just want to say thank you."

He didn't know how to respond. Somehow _'you're welcome'_ didn't seem right given the situation. He decided to just push on and get on with it.

"Alright, ready?" he said and Holly braced herself. "Now!"

In one quick move she let go of the bomb. With no belt holding it around her waist it began to fall away losing contact with her body heat. A pinging sound began to emanate from it indicating it was now armed. Hector grasped hold of it and quickly threw it to his chest. As soon as it landed against his rib cage the pinging stopped. He guessed he had just two seconds remaining before it would have gone off.

Holly scrambled up onto her feet leaving Hector on the ground with the bomb on his chest. She looked down at him tears still filling her eyes. To Hector it looked like she hadn't stopped crying for days. She turned to face the Cylon, its red eye scanning her every movement.

"Let him go," she demanded. "He's passed your test now let him go."

"What?" asked a groggy Hector unsure whether he had heard her correctly.

"Return-To-Your-Holding-Area-And-Await-Your-Next-Instructions."

Holly began to walk off but stopped after two paces before turning back to the Cylon to plead one last time. "Please!" The Cylon ignored her. She looked back at Hector lying on the ground clutching the bomb. She walked upto him, his own tired eyes filled with both anger and confusion. She reached down and pulled the bomb from his chest, in his increasingly tired state he was unable to resist her. The bomb began pinging once more until it reached the end of its countdown but nothing happened. It was a dud. They were never in any real danger from it.

"You…frakking traitor!" barked Hector.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him. "If I didn't cooperate they'd kill my family. They're holding them in a camp not far from here. I think we're useful to them."

"Useful!" he growled. "How?"

"To understand us. We may have built them," she started before stopping for a moment to rub her tear filled eyes. "But they don't really know us. They seem to want to understand. I've had to do this six times. You were the first to try and help me."

"Frak off!" he said to her.

She wanted to say more but she knew it was useless. She looked at the Cylon before turning to walk back into the forest. The Cylons were obviously sure she would make it back to the camp without the need for an escort. Soon it was just Hector and the Cylon.

"So this was just some experiment, huh?" he said to it as it walked closer towards him, its heavy footprints making deep indentations in the ground. "How did I do?"

"Program-Completed."

"What did you learn from all this?" he asked hoping that he would get some sort of reason for his impending death. "You wanted to see how easily we'd turn against each isn't it?" It didn't reply and so with the last of his energy he screamed, "Isn't it?"

The Cylon stopped less than a mater away from him. The speakers in its chest crackled momentarily before a familiar voice emanated from them. It was Staff Sergeant Mendez from Fort Phonso where he did his basic training. It said, "My Gods, Recruit Tierney has done it again." He soon heard his own voice replying to Mendez as the whole conversation about how Cylons are better than Humans was played out infront of him.

"You were the Centurion that jumped on that smoke grenade," said Hector in a moment of realization. "I see. That was my lesson so I guess this is yours."

The speaker crackled once more, "My Gods, Recruit Tierney has done it again."

The arm of the Cylon holding the assault pistol rose until the barrel was pointing directly at Hector's head. In one bright flash his life was over.

"Am I dead?"

"Yes," replied a woman's voice.

**The End**


End file.
